Restaurant reviews Mallorca 2007

El Molino, Pollenca - 23 August 2007

I’d read good reports of El Molino so one early evening, after parking the car on a patch of waste ground almost opposite, we booked a table and walked up to the square for a drink at Café Espanyol.

I love trying new places and when we arrived sometime later, we took our seats in the tiny courtyard in front of the restaurant. Space is rather tight here, but it makes for cosy dining and our original table was rejected because there simply wasn’t enough room for the fourth chair. So as you can imagine, we were rather fussy customers from the outset and then I made things worse by dropping most of my cutlery on the floor!

Anyway, with menus in hand, we studied the choices and were impressed with the different dishes on offer. The children opted for a beef curry while hubby decided on walnut and balsamic bread topped with Mallorquin cheese, ham and asparagus as a starter and fried goat’s cheese with strawberry coulis for me. For the main course, I was intrigued by the “jerk” pork served with bulgar wheat and hubby went for battered cod with chips and salad.

Decisions over, we sat back and enjoyed bread, olives and aioli and chose a Macia Batle Blanc de Blancs to go with our meal. El Molino is a very pretty restaurant with beautiful stonework and ornate gates leading into the tiny courtyard. There aren’t many tables outside so if you want to take advantage of fresh air it would be best to book. The staff were very friendly and our waitress made a great fuss of the children, particularly my son who had a little green gorilla with him which was much admired!

The children’s curry arrived with our starters and it was delicious. My son went for the full adult portion and did well, eating most of what was on his plate. I tried some and was impressed with the flavour. It wasn’t too hot, either. Our starters were fine – the strawberry coulis mixed in with my leafy salad was delicious.

The Blanc de Blancs was very good and was a deep golden colour. It made a perfect match with hubby’s cod, but my main course of jerk pork was quite overpowering, the sauce covering the meat highly spicy and hot. It was served not with the bulgar wheat as described, but with rice and chips. The waitress had let me know about the change, but I would have appreciated some salad or vegetables to soften the heat. Bizarrely, it gave me a sudden and painful headache and I didn’t finish it. Hubby’s cod was acceptable and he especially liked his handmade chips.

We shared two desserts of apple crumble. Again, they were fine but I suspect they were microwaved as the dishes they were served in were extremely hot.

To sum up, we enjoyed our evening at El Molino but next time I would choose a different main course! The service was brilliant and the waitress who looked after us was superb – efficient, friendly and professional.